The Russian Roulette [The Mafia Chronicles #2]

Chapter XV

The masked men walked forward, their boots thudding and echoing around the mansion. With guns held in their hands, they scattered themselves across the building trying to reach their targets with no luck. Shots rang in their ears followed by grunts of pain from both their allies and their foes. They didn't pay them any attention; they had a more important task at hand.

They had to reach the mafia leaders and assassinate them.

One of the weaknesses the leaders had was their pride. They each had a pride that rivalled the other's and the men with guns knew that. They were prideful, so much so that they decreased the protection and security around them whenever they joined each other because they believed they were a force to be reckoned with. They believed they were invincible and unmoving.

But to their dismay, that pride was going to make them meet their demise way sooner than they would anticipate. At least that's what their foes wished. How many powerful people fell into death's open arms because of their pride? History is filled with them, and these men will one day join that list.

"What's our number?" The masked man asked his teammate, but he only received a simple shake of his head. Too low, is what it meant. Their mission was weakly planned, and the reason for that was pride. They thought they were strong and prepared enough- but they weren't. They never anticipated that the leaders would violate Leonidas Gambino's orders of bringing their own security detail alongside them, and they most definitely did not anticipate that they would be located near the mansion for their leaders' protection.

The very thing that they used against the leaders of the union was the sin that sent the final blow towards their mission, making it end in spirals. Their team was falling. They couldn't stand strong against the forces of the Russian Don's guard.

His guard. Not his army. Just his guard.

The men were ready to drop their weapons and pray when luck was thrown their way. Three soldiers rushed forward with a woman in their arms, tears streaming down her face. Pathetic, the man sneered in his head. He didn't understand the fear that she was feeling, seeing the mansion get stormed with masked men clutching guns to their chests, aiming their way. None of them understood the distress and pain she felt as the explosion they set off in the mansion made her drop to the floor in pain.

No, to them, she was simply a hostage they would use against the very person who's guard was fighting them. The very man they came to target.

Not the leader of the union, no.

They were here for the Russian Don. They thought they could end him. Oh, how horribly wrong they were. But what better way to weaken him than to kill his own wife in front of his eyes? The least it could do is weaken his resolve, even if it ended them. They were willing to sell their lives for their cause: vengeance.

They wanted to hit the union where it hurt the most: their strongest member, and Alexi Dimitri was that very person. It just happened that there were other motives to target him. Old feuds needed to be settled for them to rise again.

"Sir! What do we do with her?" One of the soldiers holding Sophie turned towards the masked man. Sophie's eyes blinked quickly before looking back and forth from her captor to his leader.

Her brows raised. "You mean to tell me that you kidnapped the wife of the Russian Don-wait no-the Russian Donna without a plan? The least of it is that you plan to keep me hostage!" Sophie's small ego felt bruised because of her low budget kidnappers.

Her father always told her she was worth so much, but it didn't seem like it at that moment. Those kidnappers didn't even have a plan for her!

The masked man scoffed. "Are you trying to help us and in turn bring your death closer?" He wondered what went through the woman's mind. They received intel about her, informing them that she's a history student, making the man question how the fuck she reached higher education with the way her brain worked.